Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter meeting recap – 11/19/2018

Twenty members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at the Sports Cafe, located at 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton on Monday, November 19, 2018.

Chapter president Rick Zucker called the meeting to order.

It was decided that the chapter’s Hot Stove Luncheon that has been held for several years on SABR Day, in late January, will be held one week later on February 2, 2019. It will be held at Favazza’s on the Hill starting at noon. More details will be released soon.

Items mentioned for this date in baseball history were: 1921 – Hall of Famer Roy Campanella is born in Philadelphia. 1962 – The Cardinals acquire Dick Groat and Diomedes Olivo from the Pirates in exchange for Don Cardwell and Julio Gotay. (There was some good discussion on how much of a key move this was leading to the 1964 World Series win over the Yankees). 1979 – Nolan Ryan becomes the first million-dollar player, signing a 4 year, $4.5 million dollar contract with the Astros. 1986 – Mike Schmidt wins his 3rd NL MVP. 1996 – Albert Belle becomes the first ten million-dollar player, signing a 5 year, $55 million dollar contract with the White Sox. 2001 – Barry Bonds wins an unprecedented 4th National League MVP with 73 HR’s & 137 RBI.

Bob Giovanni gave a book review of Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes of Fame That Lasted Forever, by Kevin Cook. The book covers the 1947 World Series and the roles that some of the lesser-known players Bill Bevens, Al Gionfriddo, Cookie Lavagetto, and Snuffy Stirnweiss and also managers Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton played in the exciting series.

A copy of the 2019 Hall of Fame ballot, that was released that day, was passed out to those in attendance and there will be a mock vote at the next meeting. There was some discussion on the candidates and also those on the “Today’s Game Era” ballot.

There was general discussion on the 2018 World Series between the champion Red Sox and the Dodgers, and also the 2018 award winners.

Bob Tiemann gave a research report on the 1968 National League champion St. Louis Cardinals 4-week long exhibition tour of Japan in late October and November after their World Series loss to the Detroit Tigers. The Cardinals finished the trip 13-5 against the host country champion Yomiuri Giants and various All-Star combinations.

Bob Tiemann’s trivia quiz was “1998 – Big Mac, Sammy & Friends”. Rick Zucker was the winner with 23 out of 36 answers. The top three winners won Mark McGwire posters.

The next regular monthly meeting will be Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at the Sports Café in Bridgeton.